Habermas, the states and the worldwide society

Abstract

Although Habermas advocates universalistic ethics, his work oscillates between the defence of universalism and particularism. Thus, Habermas is a committed partisan of multicultural societies, but provided that individual subjective rights are paramount values; similarly, he supports the constitution of an international polity with means at its disposal to ensure peace and police the respect of human rights; still, the German philosopher is against the creation of a world state and the consequent withering away of nation-states. The European Union used to be regarded by Habermas as a forerunner of the world order he supports, but the rejection of the Constitutional Treaty in 2005, and the crisis of the United Nations with the unilateral invasion of Iraq and the ensuing occupation, have tempered his optimism.